The present invention relates to a bumper for vehicles, particularly for passenger cars, which has a dimensionally stable support held in position on the adjacent vehicle body by holders.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,010,969 shows a bumper in which the dimensionally stable support and the holders are manufactured separately of one another and are subsequently connected with one another. This arrangement has the disadvantage that the manufacturing and mounting of the holders cause considerable expenditures with respect to time and cost.
An object of the invention is to reduce, with respect to a bumper of the first described type, the expenditures of time and cost during the manufacturing of the dimensionally stable support and of the holders.
This and other objects are achieved by the present invention which provides a bumper for a vehicle having a vehicle body, comprising a dimensionally stable support, and holders which hold the dimensionally stable support on the vehicle body. The holders are integrally constructed in one piece with the dimensionally stable support.
Some of the principal advantages achieved by the present invention are that, as a result of the integration of the holders into the dimensionally stable support, considerable time and costs are saved during the manufacturing of the support and of the holders.
In certain embodiments of the invention, the holding devices are formed by locally cut-free sections of the vertical web of the dimensionally stable support which are directed toward the vehicle body. An additional stiffening of the holders is achieved by the fact that, at least in sections, they are welded together with adjacent horizontal legs of the dimensionally stable support.
In addition, in certain embodiments of the present invention, the bent-away web is provided locally with stiffening beads. By means of the U-shaped or V-shaped construction of the holder in certain embodiments, high forces may be absorbed, in which case the energy absorption can be controlled in a defined manner by the geometry of the holder and by the clamping length (length of the weld seam).